As an aside, it would be nice to have a separate setting for notifications when a group is tagged vs you directly. I'd like to get emails if someone directly mentions me, but not if someone tags the whole group.

Hey, sorry for the slow response. Without Tapatalk, I don't get on much. The position was indeed filled by an artist from DA, but I may have something else that may work for you based on your portfolio. I've sent ya a message.

That's not at all what I meant. In fact, the first (and most) iteration will be a companion app as it isn't really practical to bring over all the features the full web game has (not even to mobile web).
As for bandwagon and trends, I've been building websites and apps (like actual desktop apps, and then symbian apps for the first "smart" phones) for 15 years now. Many of my sites aren't even mobile optimized. There's no bandwagoning here. There's simply me seeing that a large portion of my user base on many of my sites (gaming and non-gaming) are mobile. There's me seeing that creating a mobile app for one of my non-gaming sites increased my revenue multiple times over and super increased engagement. With the apps, I have better user experience and session control than I would with a mobile website (which, we also have) and can better engage with the user.
I'm not saying simply create a pathetic wrapper "app" that is the same as the browser. I think the ticket is to put some effort in and create a user experience that can't be matched in the browser (though, as an aside, I bought a game last year that had an "app" which was actually just a browser that navigated to the domain. Users actually complained when it was removed from the store for a bit during the transition).
That's what I'm seeing from my experience though. Everyone is of course different, and devs should to do what works for them.

IMO, the above are (decent) workarounds if you can't have an app. Neither one will get a push notification if the browser isn't open though.
In those cases, would it not be simpler to open the app vs navigating to a website?
I haven't seen anyone suggest that a game should go mobile-only. I believe we're discussing making your WEB GAME mobile-accessible and if simply making a responsive design is enough.
If you're going mobile-only, chances are you're building something from the ground up vs porting an existing web-game.

Hi all,
Looking to add more artists to the team. Right now, primarily looking for artists for the following:
Maps: These will be like scenes or locations in the game. Styles can vary, so shoot me your work!
Items: Our items are currently very colorful (probably closer to cell shaded) with thick line art.
Tiles: The exploration feature of the game has "tiles" for the maps that users walk on. Style is often similar to items, but more muted and softer lines.
I'm looking for folks who communicate well and have good availability. Open to monthly guaranteed contract work for the right person(s). Shoot me a message with your rates and portfolio!